Need to see Star Wars and Spectre :cheer:

 

The Imitation game I have seen and its incredible :D

Nightwish essay *.*

Boo :kink:

 

Love the reviews though :heart: Agree with you on Spectre, yeah it was a bit flawed but I found it so fun and a really good time!

Love all the films you have reviewed (apart from Hobbit, found it really boring :( ). Also agree on Star Wars, such an epic movie and easily one of the best of the year :heart: Omg at that Jar Jar Binks comment though :lol:

 

Well, yeah I know. It's just, I would most of the time much rather pick a TV episode to watch than a film, it's much more of an investment that gets them ranked low.

 

Ah, I can see why some people might find the Hobbit boring, shame, but okay. Yay Star Wars love, is all anyone around me could talk about films-wise this Christmas.

 

Need to see Star Wars and Spectre :cheer:

 

The Imitation game I have seen and its incredible :D

 

Do. Especially Star Wars (if you haven't seen it yet)

 

Nightwish essay *.*

 

but of course *.*

 

~~~~~

 

TV SHOWS 2015

Be careful, for this post is long and may contain some spoilers. Again, I do try to keep it spoiler-free but sometimes even context or little bits of information about setting and the like can be considered spoilers. Be wary at least.

 

TV shows are great, I do like my dramas, I've gone off comedies, or more specifically American sitcoms (which I now attribute to watching nearly all of How I Met Your Mother as a coping mechanism while writing my dissertation (that was not a month I like to remember with fondness), to the point where I now know every single machination in those types of shows), so I won't be covering any of those here. Unfortunately, due to my busy year I haven't had time to watch that many TV shows in full and a couple of incidences in the second half of year meant I didn't watch that many, firstly, I started watching more anime, which I'll talk about in a later post, secondly, I started a project to watch Star Trek all the way through. So I will cover a nearly 50 year old TV show as one of these entries. I am starting to get back on the TV show wagon, I've started The Walking Dead over the Christmas holidays and that's pretty captivating, at least at the point where I am. But I do have a few entries for these. Not How I Met Your Mother, I'm avoiding talking about that, I enjoyed it for what it was but I don't even want to finish it as it brings back too many memories of having to stay in and just work and having the only entertainment thing you allow yourself a brief 20 minute escape to vaguely smile at.

 

Game Of Thrones (Season 5)

 

http://screenfellowscom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/game-of-thrones-battle-of-hardhome.png

 

I am a bit of a fan of Game Of Thrones. In the sense that it is just about my favourite TV show ever. Because it, and the accompanying books, are so well-written, plotted out seasons in advance, not afraid to kill off anyone and it’s a show that has the balls to do anything. That and it’s taking place in a living, breathing fantasy world with hierarchies, social cues and a culture just as detailed as any culture in real life. It is captivating. And all 60+ characters are watchable, for different reasons, I can’t think of a character that I don’t want to be seeing on the screen, whether I want to root for them or watch them be a total magnificent bast*rd or whether they’re Arya, and be a complete bundle of awesomeness. Because she's one of my favourite characters in any sort of TV ever, I always tend to like female characters being completely awesome despite any kind of obstacles in their way (they don't have to be female but lately I've been finding myself identifying with female characters far more than I do male heroes - the male characters I identify best with are the smart ones who aren't protagonists - and females tend to actually have more obstacles to overcome) and Arya is one of the darkest and most well-realised of those, with a clear goal that she's working towards. So I guess my most major complaint with this season is that her storyline just seemed to stall while they tried their best to tone her down a notch :( I hope she doesn't

remain blind

or at the least isn't hindered towards producing future moments of awesome retribution on whoever's left alive on her list. Because I want to see her win the show. More than any character except Daenerys (who is probably the more likely option in the real world).

 

But the rest of this season was pretty good at continuing on the story to a point where I do actually feel the story is moving along. Dany is out of Mereen FINALLY, even if it took far too long, we got a fantastically tense scene in the pits where I wasn't sure who was going to live or die even if the only way out was pretty obviously

Drogon suddenly arriving out of nowhere

. Cersei got one of her greatest scenes yet and 'Shame' spawned a pretty funny meme. Dorne wasn't actually a big let-down as I actually enjoyed the Sand-Snakes characters, Ramsay, Sansa, Brienne all had pretty stellar plots going on, and while the ending to all of that feels quite unresolved I'm sure that won't be a problem once Season 6 starts.

 

The real strength with this season lies in the North though, Hardhome was the first time for a long while that I felt completely scared by knowing what was coming and not knowing who would make it out of that accursed place alive. It gave me similar feelings to the Red Wedding but less of a sudden shock and more of a sustained half-an-episode shock. That is the sort of trance and great state that a truly brilliant TV show can place me in. I wonder if it will be as brilliant on second viewing, I'm saving a proper runthrough again for when the series is finally done I think, but that first viewing completely blew me away. The 'shock ending' to episode 10 didn't feel quite as powerful coming off the heels of that but it's still interesting and seeing the fallout of that should be fun.

 

Best Episode: Hardhome. For those reasons above. It might even be my favourite episode of the whole series, such was its effect on me. Additionally, we've needed this for a long long time, but for the first time since perhaps Season 2, the Walkers really felt like a proper threat again. Men are right to be scared of them, I look forward to seeing them sweep south and bringing death to kings in their castles.

 

Best Character: This season.... not Arya because she got such bad material although she'd be a surefire candidate in most other seasons. Nah, I'd actually give it to The High Sparrow, for being a completely captivating character whenever he's on the screen, a new guy with a new angle on his motivations and most importantly, a proper rival for Cersei that she really can't defeat and ends up getting broken by.

 

Star Trek

 

 

So I am a bit of a sci-fi nerd at heart and, predictably, my childhood favourite/general favourite from that is Star Trek. I’ve seen loads of Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager too many times to count. But I’d never seen any of the original series so, not having watched any Star Trek at all for a couple of years I decided to fix that and take a bit of a time-shift back to the 60s, to see if I could get past the somewhat primitive production values and watch all 3 seasons of the original series. Which I did over the summer. I also planned once this is over to go for an ‘organised rewatch’ of all subsequent Star Trek. That’s just me being organised and all it means in practice is at any point in the future when I feel like watching Trek I shall go to the next one on my (production order) list (currently on TNG season 3 yay). And eventually go through them all again because I’ve been itching to fill in all the TNG and ENT gaps and rewatch DS9 for a while – I’m specifically going slow because I rewatched Voyager a couple of years ago and as lovely as it is (Hi John) I don’t want to run into it again so soon. But enough about my plan to become Supernerd and onto what I actually thought of the 60s sci-fi.

 

It was… okay. Certain episodes were pretty brilliant. And they tended to be the ones that I’ve seen most people laud anyway because they really stand out from the pack by virtue of having a very charismatic and interesting villain who’d later become a classic (Space Seed – the one with Khan), used classic Star Trek races as a threat (Balance Of Terror - Romulans, Errand Of Mercy – Klingons, Day Of The Dove – Klingons again, The Enterprise Incident – Romulans again, The Tholian Web – Tholians – they aren’t as recognisable but probably the only reason they didn’t become as ubiquitous as Klingons or Romulans is the budget required to depict them, fantastic villains), or just became classics by the sheer strength and uniqueness of their concept (Mirror Mirror & The Trouble With Tribbles). Oh, and the time travel ones and those that used somewhat explainable ways to depict some element of Earth’s past were also pretty enjoyable.

 

But despite that it’s actually quite slim pickings. The average episode has a large amount of the following occurrences:

 

• The Enterprise is on a mission to deliver medical supplies to Planet B asap but get sidetracked at unimportant planet A.

• They are in orbit over Planet A but they are being prevented from leaving by a malevolent omnipotent force that can halt starships.

• Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, the three most important people aboard, beam down alone.

• They encounter some aliens who look like humans dressed up as some familiar element of Earth’s past.

• Their communicators to the Enterprise immediately cease working and an anti-transport field goes up around the planet.

• A security officer dies horribly.

• The aforementioned omnipotent being is affable and offers them hospitality but is secretly plotting something.

• A slimy, unscrupulous, probably bearded chap in charge of the planet’s government (from some place that looks like a village hall) makes demands of Kirk and tries to trick Scotty into giving him the Enterprise.

• Scotty is hyper-competent when dealing with villains, so much so you wonder why he isn’t the captain.

• Spock muses about the implausibility of their situation.

• McCoy snaps at Spock to consider human emotions.

• Chekov, Sulu and Uhura do nothing except follow orders, Chekov may comment on something being from Russia.

• Inequalities in the planet’s system are revealed.

• Kirk sees a beautiful woman bathed in pale light.

• This woman immediately falls for one of the main characters, normally Kirk, and helps them escape from their predicament.

• They fight their way past enemy bodyguards, Spock neck pinching the most troublesome one, and confront the villains.

• Kirk yells a bit about morals.

• Kirk gets very impulsive and nearly blows the whole mission.

• Something gets into the Enterprise’s engines and threatens to blow them up, much to Scotty’s dismay.

• Kirk destroys the omnipotent being and tells the inhabitants of the planet they can learn to live without gods.

• A malevolent computer appears from the back of the villain’s cave.

• Kirk talks this computer to death in about a minute with one well-placed logic bomb.

• Everyone ends the episode happy. The Enterprise warps off into the sunset while Kirk and McCoy crack a joke at Spock’s expense.

 

Not that any of those are bad on their own, but a FORMULA starts to appear and it becomes predictable, the ‘god’ thing and the ‘computer’ thing are revisited in tons of episodes and it’s rarer than not to have the episode NOT have any force that can’t incapacitate the Enterprise long enough for Kirk and others to get trapped. Later Star Treks have a lot more variety in plots and they do move a lot faster. It’s somewhat a product of its time in that respect. And of course there are some plots which are even sillier, like the one where they find a planet that has exact replicas of the USA and the ‘Commies’ only the (all Asian-looking) Commies have won and Kirk has to lead the underdog ‘Yankees’ in singing the Star-Spangled Banner. Or the plot where they end up on a space Nazi planet because a Federation historian THOUGHT FASCISM COULD WORK. Or the plot where they meet a god claiming to be literal Apollo. Or the plot where a band of children take over the Enterprise under the mind control of a creepy old man-godalien. That’s somewhat camp. At least those episodes aren’t as dry as some though, some were so dull I was scrolling through Buzzjack/the Internet while barely paying attention. The budgetary constraints do serve to slow the show down as everything feels a little duller when your main decoration is shiny metal and garish red overlay. Or planets that are just a barren landscape with some rocks made out of papier-mache.

As far as characters go, Kirk is the only real one who these adventures happen to. Occasional episodes have it happening to Spock or McCoy, and Scotty gets a fair bit of air-time, but the rest are just cyphers. While not a bad thing to focus on one character, Shatner’s not strong enough to carry 3 seasons on his backs and I’d have killed to see an episode properly focused around Sulu, Chekov or Uhura. The show was probably amazing for the 60s, which is WHY is spawned a huge franchise that shaped sci-fi and modern technology as we know it today, but can’t really stand up to modernity or even the 80s TNG, and definitely don’t watch all of it unless you’re REALLY enjoying it, watch the ones you’ve heard are best, like the ones I mentioned up there, because they are some brilliant examples of sci-fi and are the main reason this show is remembered. No one remembers Kirk grimacing at a space cloud or talking to some Jafar-esque dignitary but they do remember Spock with a mustache and the little furry tribbles that purr and multiply out of all control.

 

I also soldiered my way through the accompanying animated series that came on the air briefly in the 70s after the network realised it was a mistake to cancel Star Trek but had already sold off all the sets. The animation gave them a lot of room to get some creative looking episodes but knowing what I know about Star Trek, even if you only take the original series into account with most of the aliens being entirely human, lots of episodes with garish plant-life/slug/pterosaur aliens really feels out of place in the ST universe. The animated style is very dated and clearly under a lot of budget, characters’ mouths barely move, Kirk for example looks either bored or perverted. A few of the stories are interesting, notably Yesteryear which is rather restrained and gives us some nice Spock background but the majority are either drug-addled messes or inferior sequels to popular original episodes done up for the Saturday morning cartoon audience. There were only 22 short episodes, and it only took as much time as 11 normal episodes, so it wasn’t a huge time waste and I can say I’ve done it. Never again.

 

Best episode: Mirror Mirror

 

Best character: McCoy or Scotty, both had equally brilliant moments over the course of the series.

 

Continuum

 

 

Off a recommendation from Johnkm, I have plenty of those to pick up on eventually, I picked this one because the premise sounded very interesting, somewhat similar to Fringe, and I love that. Well, only similar in that it's a cop show mixed in with sci-fi, I normally don't take to cop shows but combined with supernatural elements they become very intriguing as so many possibilities open up in the world of figuring out 'whodunnit'.

The premise itself is that a cop (and mother) from the 2070s gets sent back to our time along with a bunch of terrorists who were about to be executed. Oh, and Vancouver is also the center of the universe, as it's a Canadian production. The latter means that, at least at the start of the series, you have so many more villains than heroes, each with their own defining personality traits. That's good, but that's not the half of it. The thing is, their villainous position is one that I'd actually be rather sympathetic to, not to the extent of killing so many innocents like they do obviously but in that they're trying to build their vision of a better humanity, and that vision is anti-corporation (in this future the corporations are now the government, you see). As I've never bought that corporations can be people and hold certain... strong views on them being far too economically powerful to the detriment of many poor people today, that's amplified much higher here. So with Liber8's philosophies, I'm somewhat on board. It's interesting to watch as the series progresses

and the prevailing viewpoint of the heroic position slowly swings from pro-corporation to pro-humanity, in essence, it kinda swings with Kiera's views but that's okay

. For a protagonist, Kiera is very watchable and relatable for me too, I don't often empathize with the strong family position protagonists have but I do empathize with her determination and drive to stay alive and make it back home.

Things pay off very well, at least through the first 3 seasons, I found season 4 a bit less great than the others even though it did end nicely, and you can tell they were planning things out in advance. A very good watch if you fancy a sci-fi procedural that builds up its own universe and rules of time travel nicely and has a screwy approach to morality.

 

Best Episode: As it's all so arc-based it's hard to pick a favourite but Second Time all the way through to Minute Changes is a pretty brilliant execution of moving the show

into a pretty perfect alternate universe. I wasn't a fan of Brad and his soldiers' involvement in the end, but before he appeared it was all going brilliantly

. Honourable mention to Second Truths, which used the show's place in two times to investigate a murder case very satisfyingly. And that also has

Carlos discovering the truth about Kiera, and that was something really needed because one only wants to keep characters in the dark for so long

.

Best Character: HARD. Kellog, Kiera, Alec, Travis, Garza are all candidates. But I'd have to go for Sonya Valentine as she's a real genius with planning out her moves in advance, she always manages to remain in control and look pretty exude an air of self-confidence.

 

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/Eyes330/raritypinkie_zpswczudjuc.gif

 

This I actually also watched again during 3rd year as a coping mechanism because it always puts a smile on my face. I have yet to catch up to current production order but it'll be there when I next feel I need the morale boost. At this point I just have so many memories associated with it that I feel entirely comfortable with saying I like it (and I also like to think other people have moved past the 'omg you like a little girls' show? GET HIM' phase). That's like. Not love. Like. I enjoy the show because it's so cutesy and innocent and the art style is one step short of anime (i.e. brilliant). I normally like darkness and pathos, but sometimes you can't have it all the time, and this is lightness and fluffiness not in the way that you're making a boring story where the heroes always win, but one where people (or ponies) are fundamentally nice to each other and it's just good for lifting spirits.

 

So this was mainly me watching Season 3 and the start of Season 4, as well as rewatching Season 2 as it wasn't fully embedded into my brain. All I can say is that the plots were NICE. I don't go in here expecting it be great TV, I expect it to cheer me up when I've had a bad day. And for that, it does its job impeccably.

 

Best Character: Rarity, obviously. In all my pony sigs, she's there. Because she's the pony who comes out with the most hilarious lines (and her voice is brilliant to listen to, even though they all have American accents, she has an upmarket Atlantic accent that can sound almost RP at times), and in a world where you're watching a show about cartoon ponies, of course I'm going to gravitate to the girliest pony. I seem to gravitate to more feminine characters anyway but it just really works. Of course, all the other ponies are also very fun to watch and I wouldn't want the show to be without any of them. But if I want a pony to relate to (and yes, despite her fashion-loves and snobbiness, I most often relate to her, with things like family issues and her actual interest in love and her other interest in wanting to get noticed), I pick Rarity.

 

Best Episode: Picking from the whole lot, I have to pick Secret Of My Excess, because it makes me cry tears of joy everytime. Sisterhooves Social comes close as it reminds me of times in my own family. They're both Rarity-heavy episodes. Surprise. Also I have to give a mention to Magical Mystery Tour because it had an almost Star Trekky plot gave us two of the best songs out of the whole show (that's another thing, the songs are top-notch, you may have noticed with Love Is In Bloom & Babs Seed but there are

if you want friendship feels)

i promise not to be this brony again for another year

 

(this shows how much I have for anime over TV shows, I have 7 animes worth talking about for 2015 but only this that I can recall and want to talk about, there was Humans but it was too short and 'typical sci-fi' to really say much about and I can't think if there's anything else I've missed, I promise to even it out again if I do this again next year, The Walking Dead would be there for sure)

:hi: I'm so glad that Miracles the album made that much of an impact on you (honourable winner as I guess they were never gonna beat the album at #1 :P), they were a discovery for me too this year, and very glad to pass that on. They've released albums since then I believe but I haven't got around to listening to them, think it's more in line with the epic music sound. Men of Honor is a highlight from Miracles for me asides from the two I played and Lost in Las Vegas too <3

 

I saw Star Wars recently and really loved it, a perfect mix of nostalgia and new ideas. I didn't mind so much that it resembled A New Hope quite a lot, I'd much rather that than something that tries to change it too much to the result that it doesn't feel like Star Wars anymore, this one felt authentically like that. Inside Out is wonderful, much emotions felt watching that <3

 

and GOT :o I agree that Arya was underused this time and her storyline always seemed a bit overly enigmatic and cast aside in favour of the others, hopefully more light will be case upon that this time. I loved this series for it's constant twists and turns, was almost TOO much at times but it showed it's not slowing down any time soon. Hope it can maintain that and not be hampered from not having the source material any more.

 

Wonderful commentaries as ever, looking forward to the singles!

 

 

The Hobbit films are great, TIG was great too. Not seen Inside Out yet but trailer looks good and also need to see Spectre. Of course the new Star Wars one was aamzing :wub: :wub:

!!!!

Continuum was a great series! not seen the others though.

:hi: I'm so glad that Miracles the album made that much of an impact on you (honourable winner as I guess they were never gonna beat the album at #1 :P), they were a discovery for me too this year, and very glad to pass that on. They've released albums since then I believe but I haven't got around to listening to them, think it's more in line with the epic music sound. Men of Honor is a highlight from Miracles for me asides from the two I played and Lost in Las Vegas too

 

I saw Star Wars recently and really loved it, a perfect mix of nostalgia and new ideas. I didn't mind so much that it resembled A New Hope quite a lot, I'd much rather that than something that tries to change it too much to the result that it doesn't feel like Star Wars anymore, this one felt authentically like that. Inside Out is wonderful, much emotions felt watching that

 

and GOT :o I agree that Arya was underused this time and her storyline always seemed a bit overly enigmatic and cast aside in favour of the others, hopefully more light will be case upon that this time. I loved this series for it's constant twists and turns, was almost TOO much at times but it showed it's not slowing down any time soon. Hope it can maintain that and not be hampered from not having the source material any more.

 

Wonderful commentaries as ever, looking forward to the singles!

 

Yay, thank you for the comment, so much to respond to there. Yeah, honourable winner is a pretty good description for Miracles. I hope to get on with hearing more albums from their soon, epic music is no problem for me, I actively seek it out. And those two are two highlights I forgot to mention, I mean, so much is a highlight but Men Of Honor is very beautiful and Lost In Las Vegas goes on forever.

 

Exactly on Star Wars, that's my feelings too. Very lovely film and I felt it had a lot more competence in it than any of the prequels (as much as I enjoy Episode I it has technical flaws), going back to the originals there.

 

I have faith that they won't let us down this season. Should hopefully give us a lot more to talk about at the least. I was devastated when GRRM said he hasn't finished the new book yet, we're never going to see all seven are we? :lol:

 

The Hobbit films are great, TIG was great too. Not seen Inside Out yet but trailer looks good and also need to see Spectre. Of course the new Star Wars one was aamzing :wub: :wub:

 

!!!!

Continuum was a great series! not seen the others though.

 

Actual picture from a Season 1 episode. It's supposed to be a rock.

 

~~~~~

 

VIDEO GAMES 2015

 

I hope you don't have a changed opinion of me by the end of this post, I will freely admit that this is where it gets a bit weird with my choice of entertainment but I like what I like and I want to talk about what I like. And it's done with complete knowledge that it's slightly against the norm and so I'm not too precious about these things. That's mainly for two of the entries in here, the other three are totally normal honest.

Video games. And one visual novel. Which isn't really a game but it's more a game than an anime so I'm squeezing it in here to balance out the sections. I tend to only play games on my PC. As old and battle-worn as she is (just turned 3 a week or so ago), she's been doing good for me this year. I have really been expanding my Steam library this year to get a few more games in there, I just can't fit all of them on this laptop so I'm going to be upgrading to a proper PC as soon as I get the time and resources to do so. I don't really console game as it's not really my thing, I tend to prefer strategy games and they're only on the PC most of the time. And fortunately when there is a rare shooter or open sandbox I really want to play it's been ported to the PC pretty nicely. PCs are just better. At everything. So that's how it is. I'll be talking only about games that are new to me this year or we'd be here forever.

 

Civilization V

 

Civ V is a game I would have played much more of this year if only it didn't take an absolute AGE to load up on my laptop. This is why I need a new PC. Oh, and once I'm in the game I'm in there for 8 hours or something stupid and that's not very good for getting anything actually done. Why is it so captivating? Because you can create your own world in there. A completely huge world. I was playing Civ IV (of 'Baba Yetu' fame) up until this year and while that was great, Civ V enhanced the experience even more. In these types of grand strategy games, the more little extra tidbits you get the better and I can spend half an hour just looking at the current status of my empire and all the other empires on the map at the moment. From religion (which completely changes its nature each game), to current state of diplomacy, which also can be either exchanging pleasantries with the Polynesians to the English demanding you get out of their seas, all the way up to the Mongolians declaring war on you and running over your cities just like Genghis Khan did in the old days. I should know, my longest games have been as Genghis. I love the way it all changes every game. No game is the same, there are multiple ways to win, and because of that, you never get bored.

It is so satisfying to make yourself a competent player in the world and just eventually, through sheer force of determination, down thousands of years, destroy an enemy because he snubbed a trade deal with you back in 800 BC and you really needed those dyes then and now he will pay for that centuries old mistake.

 

I used to love playing Total War because the campaign mode was somewhat similar to this but that was hampered by having to go into boring battles and be tactical and all. As will be seen by the end of this post, I'm less good at making fast-paced tactical decisions and instead prefer to play the significant strategic long con. Which I am pretty brilliant at. Macrogaming over microgaming. And the beauty of Civ V is that the battles are always resolved so quickly. An invasion of the Spanish Empire, backed by your strongest allies, can reduce them to begging for mercy in about 40 minutes. Only problem then is you have to see how it all resolves itself later on and you always have to play one more turn.

 

A game I would play forever and ever if I had infinite time and a faster computer. Seriously. It's top class.

 

Just Cause 2

 

http://i.imgur.com/57iIK.gif

 

Well, I can occasionally like big sandbox shooters that thrive on wanton death, destruction, lamentations of women and all that sort of incredibly macho stuff that tends to get played on consoles but also conveniently has a lovely PC port for use. The reason I can enjoy Just Cause (the series), I only discovered it this year and Just Cause 3 looks incredible (but not yet played it), is that it does not take itself seriously in the SLIGHTEST. It knows it's just got the barest excuse of a plot in order for your character to go around blowing shit up, it knows it's pretty dumb, it knows that all you're trying to do is simulate a Michael Bay movie, and that's absolutely fine. It adds a certain charm to it. Like you can go steal a passenger plane and, if you want to, just pick the nearest skyscraper to crash it into, on a whim. If you're into that sort of thing. I prefer to grab a fast sports car and go pasting passing peasants to the pavement. Or blow up a couple of buildings. Or just parachute around everywhere, because you have an unlimited supply of parachutes that you can quite literally pull out of your arse as well as having a grapple hook that makes your action hero handle travelling in a similar way to Spiderman.

And then, eventually, when you feel like it, you can destroy the things you're kinda meant to destroy and slowly advance what little plot there is. It's a game with an enormous amount of freedom in that sense, only just rivalled by the enormity of the open-world map, which, as it is meant to simulate an entire island nation, is actually about that size.

Basically, the one big shooter this year that really got my attention because of its laissez-faire attitude and ability for really bizarre and awesome action moments that have no place anywhere outside a parody.

 

Runescape

 

http://i.imgur.com/STMWoTG.jpg

 

Yes, I don’t often reveal to people that I play Runescape mainly because of the stigma that has been associated with it over its long and venerable lifespan. I don’t even play it all the time, there are months where I want nothing to do with it, and then there are months where I get obsessed all over again. It’s a cycle. But the important thing is that the lovably shit game we all played about 8 to 10 years ago is almost completely gone. You can still play that version if you want nostalgia or PvP and many people do, but the near-decade of updates that have gone on since then are why it’s so good now and really does not deserve its stigma of being boring, grindy and only for 12-year olds doing shit-talking PvP in a sea of bad graphics. The grind is still there but it’s been eased IMMEASURABLY by years of new training areas and fast XP methods and if you find the right things then there is a lot to enjoy. The kids, well, they’ve all grown up with the game and most people who play it are now in the 18-30 bracket and mostly, play it to have a laugh. Some of the content has become quite a bit more mature as a result.

 

And that brings me on to why I most love Runescape, the quests. I don’t really play other MMOs because I don’t want to adapt to a new system, but I hear quests in most of those are really dull, no-storyline ‘fetch me 30 special items and be quick about it’ quests. And they have paltry rewards. If you have evidence to prove me wrong, let me know, but in Runescape, you can only experience about 30% of the game without doing any quests at all, the majority of them give a reward that you’ll find essential to your playing experience – or they’ll allow you to do a quest that does. And the quests themselves, especially the higher-level ones, but a few low-level new ones too, they’re filled with constantly funny self-referential, occasionally fourth-wall-breaking dialogue with an engaging storyline, a few interesting characters here and there, and a mix of boss fights with varied mechanics and puzzles (and I love solving puzzles). As an example, one I recently did: The Firemaker’s Curse, a high level quest that heavily uses the firemaking skill (generally known as the most useless skill until they started justifying it with a few quests like these), featured a number of characters that you had to keep alive in a rather Doctor Who-esque trapped in cave setting, culminating in a very tense boss fight defeating a vengeful fire spirit through your own firemaking skills. It was an experience. And most of the longer quests are like that. I’ve still got plenty of long quests to do and I’m pacing myself so I don’t do them all too quickly.

 

There’s a few other things like slaying and boss fights that I really enjoy as well as the whole nature of the game, at this point I know it so well it feels really familiar. When I’m into it I pour so much free time into it it seems ridiculous but I really enjoy it when I do, and that’s all there is to it. Plus the community around it, particularly a few big names, Twitch streamers and the like are really watchable and the years of experience all of them have had with the game makes it really fun to follow their adventures as well as my own.

 

Football Manager 2015

 

Oh man, the times I had in the summer with Football Manager. I’m no football fan, I can’t abide watching a full game unless it’s an international finals tournament. The only reason I post in the Sports Forum at all is because so many people follow it that the stats system that has sprung up around the sport is the most interesting and complete in the world. And nowhere is that stats system better realised than in the Football Manager franchise.

 

From league tables around the world, to your clubs finances, to your player’s opinions of you, to that point where your star inside forward decides that being promoted from League One isn’t successful enough for him so he forces a move to a club that’s getting relegated from the Championship that season, it’s really immersive, and I’m living proof that you don’t have to be a huge football fan to enjoy doing it. Obviously I took Exeter City through a reasonably successful period from now to 2022, I’m not the most skilled so I managed to move them from the constant mid-table League 2 finisher they are now up to a team that is, at the point of my last save, being the Sunderland of the Championship (did I get that reference right?), with nervy last minute saves to avoid going back down. I’ve tried a few other things too, like play with the big boy clubs, simulate a few seasons to get fake players and a different football world in a decade or so, play in far-off nations, and yes, this sort of thing, staring at a spreadsheet and with little knowledge of football tactics, vaguely making decisions and hoping I’m correct, it is quite fun.

 

At this point I just wish you could skip matches without risking losing most of them, it got very nervy whenever the opposition had the ball at the 90-minute mark and the matches are the least interesting part. Because I’m weird. Or it's the same thing as with my Total War/Civilization thing, I like being in control at my game overview stats board that when we go into an individual part of that, the match in this case, I just want it to be over so I can carry on manipulating. Also I kinda suck at the whole football strategy thing, I barely know the difference between a trequartista and a false 9, so expecting me to actually come up with moments of tactical brilliance by switching the full-backs to bomb up the wing and lodge in a fast cross to your target man sitting on the edge of the wing with individual instructions to cross kick right into the goal is expecting a little much. So I go by luck. A little.

 

Katawa Shoujo

 

http://i.imgur.com/ajR8Ke8.png

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/Eyes330/katawa_zpsvwkgqyyf.jpg

 

Ah, this. It’s both a video game and an anime. Kinda. It’s a visual novel. Visual novels are known generally for being dating sims that involve your POV character ending up doing unspeakable things to the pretty anime girl you decide to chase on this playthrough and as such are only for the perverted. Allegedly. And I’m not denying that Katawa Shoujo doesn’t have elements of this, but I want to talk about it here so I’m getting this part out of the way quickly as it’s by no means my reason for liking it. It does have adult content f***, actual hentai (not really, hentai’s only purpose is titillation). So no links to it. But you can turn that off if that’s not your thing, and you don’t lose any of the story’s meaning without it. And the adult content is so well spaced apart that it feels an entirely natural part of the story when it does happen, and you have to play through at least an hour, maybe two hours, of mostly well-written story before you get anywhere near that. It’s not cheap titillation by any means. Even if it was made by people who first conceived of the idea upon 4chan, otherwise the scourge of the internet. The reason is all in the selling point of this particular VN.

 

Katawa Shoujo means ‘disabled girls’ in Japanese, and while at first glance this may make it seem all the worse, it’s actually given a point to the story, where you, the protagonist, go and positively influence the lives of these people with different disabilities, while they do the same back to you (you also have a disability, conveniently it’s an internal one). It treats each different case very respectfully and I’d say, not knowing many people like this in real life, really given me a lot of awareness in the way a deaf or blind or limbless person lives their life in ways I’d never thought about before. Each main character also has several distinguishing features to their personality that makes them seem more well-rounded… instead of the ‘deaf one’ being the deaf one, she’s competitive and playful, yet also ambitious and business-like, i.e., a fully-fledged personality. It both legitimises the story into something worthy, and it also makes it interesting to follow. I first came in wondering what they’d do with girls of different disabilities and if it was crap, crass or lifeless, I’d have put it down, but it was quite the opposite, the characters feel alive, and like you’d want to be friends with these characters, and, with the exception of a bit of forced romantic dialogue here and there, it’s a very enjoyable read. And when it gets down to the endings, quite heart-wrenching/uplifting/both at once, depending on which girl you choose and which choices you make.

 

Best Character/Story: All of them have their strengths, and their personalities inflicted themselves upon me while I was reading their stories. Lilly’s story helped my consideration of others and the importance of communication, Hanako’s story is fantastic for aiding with dealing with other people’s introversion, Rin’s came out of left-field and is essentially a tragedy of trying to understand someone who operates on a completely different level of thinking to yours, Emi’s was a bit more straightforward than the rest, but is full of determination, and during the summer holidays when I had time, it got me running every single day. I should re-read hers so I pick it that good habit up again. Shizune, the one who made it into my avatar in the summer, and the first one I read through, had the most effect on me though. She’s very like me, I’m competitive whenever someone mentions the word game, I go serious and yet, you know, there’s a little ‘fire in eyes’ to show I’ll take all comers, but in a friendly fashion, as she does. And her ambition to make the best of herself, it really focused me and I’m only half-joking when I say she was the reason I decided to go on to do a masters, I was still exhausted from third year when I found this game and reading that rejuvenated my ambition. Her love for Risk and other wargames is also completely matched by me. In general, I found myself wanting to fall in love for perhaps the first time too. As opposed to teenage crushes or just adolescent hormones. Though that hasn’t happened yet, and it may be a consequence of maturing, not just this game, but the wonders of sharing a relationship with someone are very well spelled out across the five stories.

 

And the music, I’ll go into the music later, some of it actually made my EOY, but it is some pretty damn beautiful background music, changing in tone to fit the situation and really evoking some strong emotions at times. This also made me really interested in other, more… family-friendly romantic animes. And animes in general. In short, a ‘game’/story that had a very positive influence on my life over the summer and I owe it at least this paragraph.

Your write up of FM2015 has made me want to buy the latest version! Had so many good memories with the 2008 edition back in the day :wub:

Not played the video games or seen the TV Series :(

Your write up of FM2015 has made me want to buy the latest version! Had so many good memories with the 2008 edition back in the day :wub:

 

Ooh haha good! 2015 was the first one I ever got around to playing and I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would. I'll probably next buy one in 4 years or something as it's up-to-date enough for me to be fine for now. I have hundreds of hours logged on this which is a bit embarassing looking back (although a large part of that was leaving it running in the background). Still, great fun.

 

Not played the video games or seen the TV Series :(

 

Hey, no need to say you know nothing (like Jon Snow :D), because that's okay! I don't expect everyone reading this to have experienced everything I have and indeed part of the reason I'm doing this is talking about what I like perhaps so that others can find something new they like. Recommendations if you will. It's the main reason I read other people's EOYs and why I like to hear about things I haven't heard.

 

~~~~~~

ANIMES 2015

 

I’ve really come on with my anime love this year. For a long time I’ve adored the art style and whole aesthetic of it, which is part of the reason my avatar on here has been an anime girl in one form or another for such long periods of time. Prior to this, I’d watched ONE anime series in full, back in 2013 – The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzimiya – I don’t know why it took me so long to continue either, probably to do with my lack of knowledge of Crunchyroll and the perception that many anime series were insurmountable monsters like Naruto or One Piece. Now, Haruhi is an amazing series, but as part of its thing is riffing on several anime slice-of-life/fantasy tropes, without the context I guess loving that was like loving all of anime compressed into a very small condensed part. I’ve watched so much more this year, and with the knowledge that there’s so much more out there, look forward to binge watching even more in 2016. Anime isn’t a genre, it’s a medium, which is why this is a separate post, and so there are all kinds of different shows I’ve watched. I’ll go through them in the rough order of when I watched them. Each of them stood out to me, and it's so easy to get obsessed and emotional over anime, moreso than with a TV series, because the animation can use all sorts of facial emotions to make you empathise with the characters better than actors could, the music is GOOD and always right on hand, and they exploit good tropes for maximum emotional impact all the time.

 

As I expect no one but the few anime watchers we have on here, and maybe not even them, have seen these series, check these out if you're interested at all. They're good. I hope to find even more like them next year.

 

The Pet Girl Of Sakurasou

 

Officially the second anime series I watched in full, ‘Pet Girl’ is something more of a slice of life show played a lot more straight than Haruhi ever tried to be, so I guess it was a nice easing back into anime for me (still took me a few months to watch anything else, I was busy with third year work). To an extent, the characters are quite similar to Katawa Shoujo too, which as that spearheaded the charge for me to get back into anime in the summer, meant that I was really milking weird girls in slice of life stories for all that was worth.

 

In fact, despite the potential creepiness in the title, ‘Pet Girl’ is one of the most normal animes you could come across, there’s no supernatural plot elements whatsoever, one of the few animes where this is the case, I’ve found, and there’s nothing particularly dirty or approaching excessive fanservice that SOME (less enlightened) people might call perverted. It’s just, at its heart, a simple high school drama that focuses around a number of outcast students. The titular ‘Pet Girl’ is a new transfer student, as they all are, who also happens to be a very famous manga artist, as they all are. She also can’t take care of herself, so that falls to our protagonist, Sorata, who’s your standard male lead who really didn’t want any of this happening to him. Much hijinks ensue. Also in the cast are a girl so weird and bouncy she gets described as an alien, a shut-in who doesn’t come out of his room until the 9th episode and can’t abide women (he lives in the same dorm as 4 of them by the end of the series and has another one obsessively chasing him :’) ) and said obsessive chaser who’s English and therefore makes several back and forth trips to Japan over the course of the series.

 

It’s a tale of growing up, taking responsibility, and dealing with relationships, and it does that pretty well. There’s an episode at the end I would almost say is its best episode simply as it takes the form of a graduation ceremony looking back at the characters, and that’s the sort of thing that can easily get me emotional. Despite being all shoved together in what is seemingly the ‘weirdo’ dorm, they gel and create projects together – the school is big on the arts and each of the main cast has a talent in creating entertainment, there’s one of: manga, animation, programming, writing, voice acting and video game designing among the main six, and part of the fun is seeing what they come up with.

 

Best Episode: First Love With An Alien – at this point in the series, 18/24, the relationship between two of the main characters, Mikasi and Jin, is struggling and through the intervention of their friends on a rooftop, several tensions that had been there since the first episode in a very satisfying/emotional way.

 

Best Character: Ryuunosuke (Dragon) . He’s the shut-in woman hater. And it seems to be more an actual condition than any anti-feminist bollocks. Very watchable character and you can root for him as he gets worn down and has depths etc. Mashiro the Pet Girl comes close just for moments like this:

http://kurogane.animeblogger.net/image/fall12/sakurasou_11_06.jpg

There’s context to that, I swear.

 

Summary: A lovely, quiet, pleasant watch. It’s pretty easy to watch and if you like anything set in a school or talking about next steps, moving on or anything of the like, then this is a good show. Plus there are LOTS of cats. I should have led with that.

 

The Disappearance Of Nagato Yuki-Chan

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/Eyes330/clubroom_zpsjj2teg5g.jpg

(I'm doing this too much, all she wants to do is a Christmas party in the anime :kink: )

 

So with Katawa Shoujo spearing me on into getting into anime again, I figured it best to start with something rather warm and familiar. A spinoff to my first anime love, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya. In fact, because I’m used to the voices, as much as it pains me to do a disservice to Aya Hirano, the only anime franchise I’ll watch the dub of. I just like the voices of Kyon and Haruhi speaking English, it feels familiar. Nagato Yuki-Chan is quite a different prospect from the weird main series though, it tries to play a slice of life anime really straight.

 

Without going into too much in-universe detail, it’s set in the ‘normal alternate’ universe visited in the film Disappearance of Haruhi Suzimiya, where everyone is not a robot or time-traveller or esper or whatever they are in the prime universe. Especially Yuki Nagato, one of my favourite characters in the franchise, she’s been in my avatar a couple of times and she’s adorablz, even more so here as she's so changed from her normal self. On the whole, it’s nowhere near as good as Melancholy but it’s so interesting to see these characters in different roles, particularly Asakura, who, for reasons that you’ll know if you’ve ever watched the franchise, I was always suspicious of and that made her really good to watch. One failing of the original series was developing characters other than Haruhi and Kyon so this gives them the chance, albeit without any supernatural stuff.

 

It could have used a bit more universe crossover as well as an acknowledgement that there was another universe, they seemed to be avoiding it, a few subtle references aside, but for what we got, it was very pleasant. Maybe it’d be less good if I was more used to anime but I really love these characters and any opportunity to see more Haruhi getting over-zealous, this time with a really excellent foil in Asakura (who got really underused in the original series but shines here).

 

Best Character: For pure advancement from Melancholy, it has to be Ryoko. She’s also been in my sig, she’s still my Skype avatar and I will keep her there for as long as necessary. Completely convincing character to watch, even if she does get a bit concerned sometimes. Haruhi and Yuki are strong as ever and Tsuruya & Kyon both put in good appearances too.

 

Best episode: Someday In The Rain. Based off an episode from the original series with the same name, this is filled with anticipation; for that feeling of knowing something big is coming to change up the series, it was the most convincing episode I watched.

 

School Live!

 

http://www.fandompost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/School-Live-Anime-Header.jpg

 

Also fully getting me back into anime was this series, which I picked up on a recommendation from Brett. I’m trying to make all of these reviews pretty spoiler-free but that’ll have be especially true for this one. Because the first episode is required viewing for any anime fan. Once you see that episode you’re hooked and I doubt it’ll be as good if you know what it’s about before seeing the first episode. But as far as we can go, it’s pretty great. I wonder if it’s trying to satire off Love Live a bit, I’ve just started watching that and thematically the first episode seemed quite similar what with the whole ‘I love my school so much’ thing.

It is a huge load of fun though, I was really hooked waiting for the episodes to come out on Crunchyroll and the characters are very good watching, they fall into the sort of slice of life anime girls whose antics cause me to have the stupidest grin on my face for the entire time I’m watching (mainly when they put on those ‘chan’ faces), it’s impressive they can pull that off given their situation. And that’s all I’m saying about that.

 

Best character: Kurumi. Well, she’s the strongest of the girls and I always like my strong female characters. She has a pretty good sense of humour. Though Yuki is decent just for being bizarre.

 

Best Episode: Though ‘Beginning’ is essential to the series, ‘Rainy Day’, near the end of the series is my favourite, for being the point where everything really kicks up a gear approaching the finale. I guess episodes with titles including rain are always good. It’s a powerful metaphor.

 

Attack On Titan

 

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/attack-on-titan.jpg

 

Well, here’s the one I really recommend anyone who likes their TV series epic and adult and Game Of Thrones-like, but hasn’t really watched any anime before, to check out. It's also finally something not about girls in highschool. :kink: I like that setting as it has lots of storytelling possibilities with a large cast of characters but it's nice to have a break.

 

I knew Attack On Titan was one of the ones I needed to watch upon seeing all of anime (or all of Crunchyroll) laid out before me so I went right to it and it didn’t disappoint, in fact, I completed it in less than a week. Set in the future, where humanity is living in with some sort of pseudo-medieval technology and within three circular walls to keep out the monstrous titans, huge man-eating monsters that look like humans without the genitals.

Yes, it’s anime, that just means the concepts can be outlandish (let us not speak of that live-action movie apparently). But again, it’s captivating throughout, it’s quality TV for anyone comfortable with a level of gore, and while I figured out what was going to happen episodes in advance, it remained enjoyable right to the end of the season. There’s a good team of characters, the technically proficient girl, the guy who’s always second-guessing his decisions, the plucky agile warrior, the cold, aloof one, it’s a great ensemble tackling it and all of that is always essential for me, I need series with lots of characters, always helps elevate a series, I mean, if one character isn’t very interesting, you have 10 others to latch on to and you’re never going to have too much of one character. It still follows the main lead a lot but it’ll at times cut to a scene of someone else risking their lives to take down a Titan or something of the sort and that’s so necessary to break up the episode and keep the appearance of a whole world out there. Apparently there’s a second season coming out next year and I can’t wait.

 

Best Character: Hard to say really, Mikasa is obviously very cool, I found myself quite drawn to Annie, and Connie is cool because I always think he’s going to die

but he doesn’t

.

 

Best Episode: There are two major stories here, the struggle for Trost and the expedition beyond the wall. As there’s so many episodes, I’m just going to pick one of them and that would be Trost, it’s full of excitement, danger, you don’t know the characters that well yet so it really feels like anyone could die, and as it’s the first time you’ve really seen the Titans in action, pretty incredible throughout all 9 episodes. Which is nearly half the season.

 

Charlotte

 

http://cdn.myanimelist.net/s/common/uploaded_files/1447594189-f0c5bb252151858a5e82cd38505b0ede.jpeg

 

I said in the anime thread that my main problem with this is its plot whiplash. Which is true, but that can also be a strength in that you never get bored while watching it. While after the first few episodes you begin to think it’s settling into a high school superteam formula (the premise is that people have powers but they all have a pretty severe drawback, for example, the main character, Yu, (not –hin Lau), has a power where he can possess someone’s mind but only for a few seconds, in line of sight, and his actual body collapses on the ground very noticeably), it then switches gear dramatically and starts to take the series in an entirely different direction. It’s a bumpy ride but it’s a good ride all the same and as it’s quite short it’s definitely one that’s easy to get into, it shares similarities with a few Western shows really. An easy anime to get into and one that won't bore you because after episode 6, pretty much every episode is a completely different prospect and you'll have to pay attention to keep up with all the rapid developments.

 

I of course normally love that. At times it got a little TOO much which is only why I said it was a problem but it's a strong anime anyway, and it's certainly nice to see an Eastern take on people getting random superhero powers, it's normally a good premise (see: Misfits, Heroes) and this wasn't bad at all.

 

Best Character: Obviously, she’s been in my avatar for months and she’s now in the corner of my signature too, and also she's hanging around this EOY wherever I can sneak her in, Nao Tomori is pretty much everything I want in an anime character. She’s snarky, in control of herself, doesn’t take any shit, her art style is pretty, she has some cool fighting moves (her power being invisibility, but only to one person at a time), AND, she’s even a huge rock fan – this is actually a story point – so who better to represent me in all honesty. At the point she is in the intro – this was the first one I really took notice of the intro, and it’s a great song (Lia’s Bravely You), she makes some very cool watery effects that made it stand out way beyond anything else. Honestly, she makes this anime for me, sometimes it just takes one character to completely change my opinion of a TV series and Nao is that for Charlotte, I mean, it was pretty good anyway but if I hadn't had her being good in it, my only complaint is that they don't use her enough. Jojiro comes close for being hilarious with his power (super speed/teleportation but totally uncontrollable to the point where he injures himself every time). Ironically, the J-Pop idol character, who has a power where the dead can speak through her but she’s completely unaware of it (this is used to give her a dual personality with her dead older sister), doesn’t have the name of Ayumi yet someone else in this anime does (because the only person who can be called Ayumi is Ayu Hamasaki obviously). She is my least favourite of the main four but she gets some good time too and her sister is a pretty watchable tsundere so that’s all good.

 

Best Episode: The End Of The Exodus. Episode 7. While the final few episodes are high on drama and twists, and really enjoyable to watch, the best creation must go to this mid-season episode which uses the aftermath of a very shocking event at the end of episode 6 to send one character really down the drain. It’s rare a TV show goes this in-depth on the impact of one event and it’s done so well, and so sad.

Sword Art Online

 

http://image.diyidan.net/post/2015/11/6/ao6BtgcnZoZdGwsQ.jpg

 

I partly blame Sword Art Online for getting me back into MMOs. But once I'd heard of its premise I was always going to watch it and most likely love it because the premise, getting trapped in a video game and being forced to beat it to obtain your freedom, is actually one of my more common fantasies. I suppose because it means an extended escape from real life and it would be a good way I could show off some proper skill in overcoming a challenge. Other than writing my way to victory in university.

 

The show itself though, it started out all well and good, and then by the end of the first arc, went in a few directions I wasn't expecting it to go. For the first arc was pretty tough and all survival-like with a focus on only two characters, Kirito and Asuna. And Kirito is... well, let's just say that part of the appeal of Sword Art Online is that he is completely overpowered, competent and always gets everything right, to the extent that he almost slips into parody territory. The stakes are still high, don't get me wrong, because of the technology from 2020-something that even Kirito can't beat but for some reason it doesn't feel boring, it just means he is able to pull off the most amazing moves and it's kind of okay. It's a mainstream anime, you know the main characters aren't going to fail so they might as well be awesome while they do it.

 

So yes, the first arc is pretty strong at pulling off the original premise but it's good that they moved away from that, moved away from Kirito getting the screen to himself all the time, and instead focused on slowly adding to the large harem of girls that play video games that follow him around. Because with one exception, they're the only other main characters. :lol: There is a lot to poke fun at but from halfway through season 1 onwards, there's also a lot of emotion and variety in the plots that follow, and you get to see a lot more of the real world which is really interesting, how the characters begin to balance their real life with their love of gaming. Part 2 of Season 1 introduces a whole new world and really gives a strong expansion to one character even if it's perhaps the weakest of the arcs.

 

Season 2 throws everything up a notch, introduces my favourite character, and gives an arc that's properly quite tense. If I could give a real criticism to these arcs is that they rely a lot on making the villains rapey bast*rds and... there are better ways to make a villain than have them drooling horribly over their captive. The strongest two arcs come at the end of season 2, there's a nice, short, friendly, banterous character-building arc which I really enjoyed, and then there's an arc which, well, the final episode of left me in floods of tears. Because an anime about a video game is able to do that, somehow.

 

I mean, Sword Art Online is certainly not without its flaws but I really enjoyed it and you could do worse.

 

Best Character: Sinon! (girl with light blue hair) Her 'theme song' is pretty much Eir Aoi's Ignite as that was the opening theme to SAO throughout her main arc, and she's a pretty cool girl in that her favoured combat is sniper, she's an entertaining tsundere and she just really resonated with me as I was watching her arc, particularly as she kept being standoffish to Kirito which was quite hilarious.

 

Best Episode: Mother's Rosario. The finale of Season 2, it finishes off the arc with the same name in perfect fashion, and it also, for an arc that was so focused on one character from the main bunch, really manages to do a good job of bringing it back in with the rest of the cast. And I cried like a baby. So there was that.

 

Bodacious Space Pirates

 

http://statici.behindthevoiceactors.com/behindthevoiceactors/_img/shows/banner_2354.jpg

 

I did get around to this in the end, as the last anime series before I got the cut off. It was probably because I was busy at the time but it did take me a while to get through this, if I'm honest. The setting was really quite alien, no mention of Earth at all but a load of interstellar peoples and pirates and highschool girls. There are always highschool girls. And the first few episodes were really quite slow. But once the pirate setting really got turned up, the main character properly gets her own ship and her and her crew go around being pirates and rescuing princesses and getting the crew locked away because of illnesses and having to get her highschool friends to fill in, then it becomes a romp. It isn't perhaps the best anime, it does go a little slow and the plots are a bit complicated but it was a nice change from lots of others on this list with totally obvious plots, I was never quite sure what was going to happen, where the plot would lead them next because it's a completely unfamiliar galaxy and so many potential options for what could happen. And the bits where the yacht club began competing for a race with the knowledge that piratey things were happening in the background and the will I had for a couple of the girls to get what they wanted, that was cool.

 

Best Character: Lynn. As the clever vice-president of a club with a load of tech knowledge and stuff, this was probably an obvious one if you've been following my favourite character lists. And she turns out to be a lesbian, which I was impressed by as I don't often see LGBT couples in anime. I suppose when the galaxy seems to have a huge shortage of men (other than Marika's crew) this might be the necessary option. Marika herself comes close for being almost as competent and San-Daime isn't far off for being ridiculously girly... for a male chief engineer.

 

Best Episode: A Return From Eternity. Finishing off the first half of the season pretty nicely, it has a good amount of threat for a series that elsewise is fairly comfortable for a space series about pirates, it really brings out the two princess' characters rather nicely and yeah, good climax.

 

~~~~

 

RIGHTY-HO, songs will start from tomorrow. Maybe not a post every day as I'm quite busy but yay songs yay get excited.

Oooooh, anime recommendations! Lol at Bodacious Space Pirates :lol: Everyone keeps mentioning Attack On Titan but idk if I have the time for that.

Oooooh, anime recommendations! Lol at Bodacious Space Pirates :lol: Everyone keeps mentioning Attack On Titan but idk if I have the time for that.

 

I'm sure you will! Give it a go. It's a bit gory but it's excellent at keeping you hooked and you'll be done with it in a very small space of time, and there's a new season coming out this year so no better time really.

ACTUAL SONGS

 

 

237 - Silentó - Watch Me

236 - Selena Gomez - Good For You

235 - The Shires - Friday Night

234 - Owl City - Verge

233 - Ruelle - Up In Flames

232 - The Vamps - Wake Up

231 - OMI - Cheerleader

230 - Royal Blood - Figure It Out

229 - Tove Lo - Talking Body

228 - Years & Years - Eyes Shut

227 - Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät - Aina Mun Pitaa

226 - Audrey Napoleon - Dope A La Mode

225 - Ladybaby - Nippon Manju

224 - Xandria - Voyage Of The Fallen

223 - We The Kings - I Like It

222 - Taylor Swift - Bad Blood

221 - Rationale - Fuel To The Fire

220 - Wiz Khalifa - See You Again

219 - The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face

218 - Sicko Mobb - Kool Aid

217 - Nadav Guedj - Golden Boy

216 - Florence & The Machine - What Kind Of Man

215 - Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do

214 - Echosmith - Cool Kids

213 - Pia Mia - Do It Again

212 - The Avener - Fade Out Lines

211 - COIN - Run

210 - Ellen Benediktson - Insomnia

209 - Lost Kings - Bad

208 - The Summer Set - Lightning In A Bottle

207 - Clean Bandit - Stronger

206 - Jakob Karlberg - Fan Va Bra

205 - Bring Me The Horizon - Throne

204 - One More Time - Highland

203 - Satin Circus - Crossroads

202 - Years & Years - Shine

201 - Mumford & Sons - Believe

 

As my songs this year were mainly based upon what managed to enter my personal chart (with a few exceptions if I remembered them) and because I don't want to stick to a set number, this is all of those below my top 200 that I ended up actually liking. And there are a LOT here that I thought would be a lot higher in my chart so it seems only natural to pay them a bit of lip-service. See, even though I seem to complain a lot, that's only because the charts are shit and there are so many non-chart hits I love that that's how that comes across. I love music in general and wouldn't be on here if I didn't. So I didn't set a set number to make it easier to get through.

 

As far as the order goes, for all of this, this is my opinion when I ordered them not too long ago so how they originally did in my chart doesn't always dictate how they'll do here, and if you're expecting my BJSC EOY order to be exactly mirrored here, think again because I'm almost certain it's not. Different days, different order.

 

Anyway... I'm not going to spend a huge amount of words on this but I've already started so... Watch Me I decided was going to be the cut off point, there were other songs that made my chart that I enjoyed for a short while and some that didn't, mainly BJSC songs, but I've made this large enough already and what better to be the bottom than a novelty song that isn't THAT bad and is enjoyable for what it is. Good For You is rather cool even if I haven't been on board with Selena as I used to be, The Shires, well, let's just say I'm glad I didn't enter them to BJSC but it's a good enough song.

Verge is pretty uplifting if below par for an Owl City single, Ruelle was one of my favourite UP discoveries this year, Finland's Eurovision entry always has to make my chart, it deserved to do far better but we all know they're just preparing for a glorious victory next year. Incidentally, Crossroads does make it slightly higher as it is probably a better song but for giving us a memorable entry I'm glad Finland went with PKN in the end, the live performance was one of the most energetic I've ever seen at Eurovision

 

Nippon Manju ('Welcome To Japan') is Babymetal + metal growling and is really good for the novelty, I never took to Ladybaby as well as Babymetal but it's nice to see the latter were trailblazers of a sort. Xandria are one of symphonic metal's most prominent bands and I'm glad I got to chart one of their singles for once, Voyage Of The Fallen is very upbeat and fun. A follow-up to last year's wonderful Drown, Bring Me The Horizon's Throne stayed in my affections for a little bit, not as great as Drown but still enough for me to continue looking out for them.

 

Among the BJSC entries are a number of indie ones, Jayrusalem's greatest entry by a lovely little band, Coin, actually two Taahino entries which still regularly make my playlists, the very successful Sicko Mobb and the somewhat surprisingly successful Rationale - that might be the wrong way round. A lovely song from 1992, One More Time got a little penalised because it's so old, but it has done well coming so close to my top 200. Lost Kings and Jakob Karlberg were also very enjoyable. See, the top 200 is all full of songs I like, so this lot is pretty much honourable mentions and I'm still talking about them a lot.

 

The rest I think is mostly chart hits. I'm not going to talk about them much because lots of people will be talking about them and these are the chart hits I enjoyed a little, so I haven't got anything to say that people haven't already. There were so so so so many songs that were better than 95% of the chart hits this year that it was quite easy to chuck these out. These are the ones I have given amnesty to. I am going to make an exception for Cool Kids, it has finished rather low, because Come Together is better. Or that I thought it was going to be a far bigger hit than it was and haven't gone back to it outside January. Nevertheless, one of the songs I'm glad actually made it into the top 40 for a time.

Ellie, Florence, Munford, Years&Years, Clean Bandit, COIN, Echosmith, We2eknd, Wiz, Rationale, Taylor, We The King's, Audrey Napoleon, Tove Lo, Royal Blood, OMISSIONS, The Vamp, Sicko Mobb and Selena :wub:

 

200 - MNEK & Zara Larsson - Never Forget You

199 - Molly Sterling - Playing With Numbers

198 - Storm - Huri-Khan

197 - The Weeknd - The Hills

196 - Imagine Dragons - I Bet My Life

195 - Florence & The Machine - Ship To Wreck

194 - Chinese Man - Get Up

193 - Against The Current - Gravity

192 - 831 - The Runaway

191 - Petite Meller - Baby Love

190 - Shaggy - I Need Your Love (feat. Faydee, Mohombi & Costi)

189 - The Rocket Summer - Same Air

188 - Sia - Alive

187 - Annika Herlitz - Ett andetag

186 - Adele - Hello

185 - Set It Off - Why Worry

184 - Delta Rae - Scared

183 - The Ready Set - Freakin' Me Out

182 - Wibi Soerjadi - Undaunted

181 - Rachel Taylor - Come Alive

180 - Blossoms - Charlemagne

179 - CHVRCHES - Keep Me On Your Side

178 - Sheppard - Geronimo

177 - Lunch Money Lewis - Bills

176 - Hellberg - The Girl (feat. Cori Zuehlsdorff)

 

And into the top 200 it's more lovely songs. A surprise hit of the year with Never Forget You (incidentally I didn't think much of either of these two artists before this but this is sweet), a very pleasant Irish entry, a very perfect Storm of a BJSC entry, the best of The Weeknd's all... rather decent... hits this year, I Bet Your Life which did far better in my 2014 EOY and is mainly here because I kept listening to it into 2015, a pretty cool Florence song, a *.* Gorillaz-esque-love-Chinese-Man-&-Singerpurear-song, the first Against The Current song I heard, it's pretty fantastic, but it would be topped by another obvious one later on (Talk wouldn't have been far off this if it had made my chart), a pretty beastly Taiwanese rock entry I almost sent to BJSC for one contest this year (the music video is full of blood, which I guess is why it's banned), I just chickened out, it would probably have done even worse than Stamp if that's how strong rock chords are treated, and a pretty lovely indie-pop hit in Petite Meller, we need more of THAT in the charts. And that's just the first 10, a complete mess of genres.

 

Shaggy seems a bit weird being up here but it's a fun tune, I got quite into Same Air in the waning days of 2015, another strong song from The Rocket Summer, a bit more refined than So Much Love, and there's a beautiful understandable vocal from Sia on Alive. Ett Andetag was one of of the most underrated Melodifestivalen entries this year and it's one that's stuck with me the most. Sung by the Swedish voice of Elsa from Frozen, it's a similarly lovely building ballad. One of the highlights from a weak year of that. Adele. Set It Off are one of my favourite band discoveries this year and the upbeat cheeriness of Why Worry exemplifies what makes them work. Like Fall Out Boy but with none of the angst and just something that should raise a smile to your face. They have another couple of songs to come yet though.

 

Scared is a BJSC 12 I sacrificed a final spot for and I'm glad I did, the vocal repeating of the title is very compelling, it's interesting all the way through, and I'm just saddened it didn't do much better. There's another few BJSC entries next up, another Bellamia entry, their best this year as they attempted to appeal to me a lot :kink: , and there's a pretty epic building tune in Undaunted. Wibi works his piano so well that this actually reminds me of Lindsey Stirling in the skill with which a dance beat and mastery of one instrument is combined. More music should be like that. Then there's the title track off Rachel Taylor's EP, which is pretty energetic and demands you to Come Alive with her. Which I see no problem with.

 

Charlemagne I initially took notice of because I rarely see songs referencing historical figures as eminent as him. It turned out to be a pretty catchy pop tune too that I kept coming back to so I'm delighted to see them representing guitars on the Sound Of, here's to hearing a lot more from Blossoms. Keep Me On Your Side is the first of many from CHVRCHES, it only took a few listens to become obsessed with this beautiful ode to a companion. Geronimo is another upbeat band-pop tune, I like that sort of thing, was nice to see it get some recognition here even if it wasn't enough. Bills is just a bit of fun, I'm happy to admit I had quite a bit of fun with it back when it was becoming popular. And then there's The Girl. Like all the best dance I love it uses lyrics to excellent effect that the lack of would make me forget similar tunes.

OMG at Shaggy *.*

Hi IZ,

 

I like these songs

 

200 - MNEK & Zara Larsson - Never Forget You

199 - Molly Sterling - Playing With Numbers

197 - The Weeknd - The Hills

196 - Imagine Dragons - I Bet My Life

195 - Florence & The Machine - Ship To Wreck

194 - Chinese Man - Get Up

193 - Against The Current - Gravity

191 - Petite Meller - Baby Love

190 - Shaggy - I Need Your Love (feat. Faydee, Mohombi & Costi)

189 - The Rocket Summer - Same Air

188 - Sia - Alive

186 - Adele - Hello

185 - Set It Off - Why Worry

183 - The Ready Set - Freakin' Me Out

180 - Blossoms - Charlemagne

179 - CHVRCHES - Keep Me On Your Side

178 - Sheppard - Geronimo

 

Great Section :D

 

Watch Me is quite awful :lol:

 

Verge flopping :nono:

 

OMI and Ellie tho :wub:

 

175 - Lao Ra - Jesus Made Me Bad

174 - Owl City - Unbelievable (feat. Hanson)

173 - Billy Boyd - The Last Goodbye

172 - Blonde - I Loved You (feat. Melissa Steel)

171 - Major Lazer - Too Original (feat. Elliphant and Jodi Rockwell)

170 - Marlon Roudette - When The Beat Drops Out

169 - MONAKR - Calling Out

168 - OMFG - Hello

167 - The Wombats - Greek Tragedy

166 - Little Bitter Cubes - Luigi

165 - CHVRCHES - Clearest Blue

164 - Ulf Nilsson - Little By Little (Lulleaux & Whyman Remix)

163 - Aminata - Love Injected

162 - Ayumi Hamasaki - Warning

161 - The Gentle Storm - Shores Of India

160 - Royal Blood - Out Of The Black

159 - O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei

158 - Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money

157 - Set It Off - Forever Stuck In Our Youth

156 - Owsey - I've Been Secretly Falling Apart (feat. Resotone & Jernalism)

155 - Guy Sebastian - Tonight Again

154 - Little Mix - Black Magic

153 - Years & Years - King

152 - Sigala - Easy Love

151 - D. Holic - Chewy

 

One of the best Kyla La Grange ripoffs I've come across since I fell in love with her back in 2011, Lao Ra's Jesus Made Me Bad is a bit more harsh than Kyla tends to be what with the accusatory lyrics but she seems to be cut from the same airy indie-pop cloth and I'm totally fine with that. It's not the only song in this section from Colombia either as Luigi gave me a wonderful discovery from the best BJSC spinoff this year from a very feisty pop-rock band. Stuff like this is what I want from BJSC.

 

Unbelievable was one of the tracks off Mobile Orchestra that I was most interested to see what was like, because we needed to see what Owl City + pretty-respectable-rock-band-now-Hanson would sound like. It's a song with some strong nostalgic lyrics, which resonate the best if you were a stereotypical American kid born between '83 and '92. Some of those lyrics feel too much in the past for me. But it's a very happy song nonetheless and the collaboration lived up to expectations. Only one track from that album beat it here.

 

The Last Goodbye is a quite a poignant track for me. The credits song on the last Hobbit movie, it's effectively saying goodbye to the entire Tolkien franchise. Sung by Pippin, Billy Boyd showed he was a good singer in the original trilogy and he does it again here, it was #1 for a short time at the very beginning of the year. Or it's a very good goodbye track. It got nowhere near as much recognition as I See Fire but that was unusual in that regard.

 

I heard Blonde and Marlon Roudette both last year but they really came into their own for me this year. I might have even put the former in my last EOY chart but I'm doing it again if I did it then, they're both well-produced and very pleasant songs to listen to. Major Lazer's Too Original is a bit more feisty, I still need to listen to their album but I got introduced to this off plug and it feels so fresh, rhythmic and summery to me. Elliphant really shines through on this, I've often found her hit-and-miss but this is definitely a hit for her.

 

Calling Out is standout for the little synthy noises that play during it, OMFG is standout for being totally awesome with Hello, this sort of glitch hop is very much up my street, I seem to possess a rare ability to be able to differentiate between every OMFG song, this is the second best of them. A great introduction to an quirky producer.

 

I used to be a huge fan of The Wombats, I haven't kept up with them as well as I would like but Greek Tragedy was a nice return to form for them, maybe one of these days I'll listen to the accompanying album. It did take a while to grow on me but the next CHVRCHES track to appear builds so beautifully and while it's not the very best on the album for me, it's quite up there and shows how skilled they can be in making a track sound out of the ordinary.

 

Little By Little combines two of my favourite things lately, a thick well-formed voice from Ulf and a chill, meandering happy dance beat from the remixers, it made for one of my first great discoveries of the year. Love Injected was a Eurovision smash for Latvia. That was so incredibly pleasing as they had been going without a final appearance for the longest out of all countries, without messing up EVERY time and so I was gaining some real sympathy towards them. I would have expected their next final entry to limp in there somehow. That it didn't is a testament to the quality of Love Injected, it's a cool 2015-sounding track, it's one that would have been played on Radio 1 many many times had it not had the Eurovision stigma and the quality of Aminata's singing shines through.

 

Two of my entries to various competitions take the next few places, Ayumi Hamasaki has always been one of the best J-pop artists for her ability to work with a lot of genres (as well as often work with fabulous rock chords). So when I was taking a listen to her newest tracks, Warning stood out, so I got her to represent me at BJFest, I'd wanted to do this with her for ages. It's a DAMN SHAME she didn't do better. But, live and let live. Shores Of India was one of my two UP entries this year, a very atmospheric nautical track, themed with a high concept about a sailor far away from his love, and with some cracking guitar solos. The Gentle Storm are an intriguing concept band, I do try and give people the best of what's new in symphonic metal when I can. Another track for the Muse-esque Royal Blood as I got really on board with their offerings this year, Out Of The Black being the best of them, hard, gritty and coupled with a bizarre but lovable video.

 

There's one very conspicuous track in this section that looks out of place next to the others. That's because while I've loved Dragostea Din Tei for absolutely years and do count it as one of my favourite songs ever what it's done this year has been the signature song of plug.dj, something that was a huge part of so many people's years on here. Count this as a victory for plug.dj and all the memories I've shared with loads of you on there.

 

I do actually rather like Bitch Better Have My Money, particularly the Kat Krazy bootleg. Something about the anger in the track. Not Rihanna's best but then she has not had the best year. But this is quite different and unlike those tracks of hers that I'm not on board with, it's exciting. On the other end of the music scale, Set It Off's other solo track in here, Forever Stuck In Our Youth eventually grew on me to be the best that I've heard from them, principally because of the descent into their upbeat and fun chorus intended to capture the joy of being stuck in your youth. The even more blatant Fall Out Boy 'homages' are very welcome also.

 

I've Been Secretly Falling Apart is one of the most beautiful downbeat instrumentals I've come across this year, a pleasure to listen to. There's so much going on in the background, you notice a new little note every time. Not many tracks I can say that about, a wonderful musical experience. Tonight Again, the catchy, upbeat introduction of Australia to Eurovision worked very well as a debut entry and they'll be welcome back next year.

 

3 big hits that were 'above par' next and then D.Holic's Chewy. One of the more interesting K-Pop tracks I've come across this year, it works because it uses an exotic instrumental in a similar manner to Talk Dirty. In fact the whole track reminds me of Talk Dirty. Now that seems a bit confusing as my feelings about Talk Dirty are well... I hate it. That's because of a certain repulsive individual putting his 'I get better sex than you' attitude all over that track. Remove that, replace it with some Korean girls who have better singing/rapping voices and it becomes very amazing. The exotic instrumental was always the only saving grace of Talk Dirty and so a better singer (and indeed the instrumental itself is far better and more engaging) could always make something similar amazing for me. I might save this for a future BJSC, I might have entered it this year but I have been entering a lot of Asian pop lately. It's seriously good. That makes three in a row where I've had some Asians as the thumbnail, I make no apologies for that.

Lots of great songs so far Iz! My favourites:

 

236 - Selena Gomez - Good For You

232 - The Vamps - Wake Up Never thought I'd see the day when The Vamps appeared in your EOY :lol:

231 - OMI - Cheerleader

229 - Tove Lo - Talking Body

228 - Years & Years - Eyes Shut :wub:

223 - We The Kings - I Like It

222 - Taylor Swift - Bad Blood

220 - Wiz Khalifa - See You Again

216 - Florence & The Machine - What Kind Of Man

215 - Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do

214 - Echosmith - Cool Kids

213 - Pia Mia - Do It Again :wub: This strikes me as the kinda thing you should hate :')

211 - COIN - Run

207 - Clean Bandit - Stronger :wub:

206 - Jakob Karlberg - Fan Va Bra :wub: :wub:

202 - Years & Years - Shine :wub:

200 - MNEK & Zara Larsson - Never Forget You

199 - Molly Sterling - Playing With Numbers

197 - The Weeknd - The Hills

195 - Florence & The Machine - Ship To Wreck

190 - Shaggy - I Need Your Love (feat. Faydee, Mohombi & Costi) :wub: Surprise of the year for me I think :lol:

189 - The Rocket Summer - Same Air *.* yasss

188 - Sia - Alive

186 - Adele - Hello

183 - The Ready Set - Freakin' Me Out :wub: :wub:

181 - Rachel Taylor - Come Alive

177 - Lunch Money Lewis - Bills

172 - Blonde - I Loved You (feat. Melissa Steel)

158 - Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money

154 - Little Mix - Black Magic

153 - Years & Years - King :wub:

152 - Sigala - Easy Love

 

Keep going with the essays too *.*

Hi Iz,

 

172 - Blonde - I Loved You (feat. Melissa Steel) :heart:

171 - Major Lazer - Too Original (feat. Elliphant and Jodi Rockwell)

170 - Marlon Roudette - When The Beat Drops Out

169 - MONAKR - Calling Out

168 - OMFG - Hello

167 - The Wombats - Greek Tragedy :heart:

165 - CHVRCHES - Clearest Blue :heart:

163 - Aminata - Love Injected

160 - Royal Blood - Out Of The Black :heart:

159 - O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei :heart:

158 - Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money :heart:

157 - Set It Off - Forever Stuck In Our Youth :heart:

156 - Owsey - I've Been Secretly Falling Apart (feat. Resotone & Jernalism)

155 - Guy Sebastian - Tonight Again

154 - Little Mix - Black Magic :heart:

153 - Years & Years - King :heart:

152 - Sigala - Easy Love :heart:

 

Great section :D